The invention relates generally to checkpoint systems, such as airport security systems, and more particularly to checkpoint systems conveying articles to be checked in bins and methods for operating those systems.
Every airline passenger is familiar with airport security checkpoints. The passenger empties his pockets into a plastic bin, drops in his belt and shoes, and adds other items he is carrying. He pushes the loaded bin along a gravity-roller conveyor until the bin reaches a flat conveyor belt, which eventually conveys the bin into an x-ray scanner. After passing successfully through the personnel scanner, the passenger unloads his bin, which has been discharged from the scanner along a declining gravity-roller conveyor. An airport-security worker then collects the unloaded bins, carries them back to a table near the starting point, and stacks them there. If the scanned image of a bin shows suspicious or unidentifiable items, that bin is manually removed from the line of cleared bins and inspected. These manual methods of handling bins are not a productive use of a security worker's time.